Tanner shot jazz greats for albums, magazines

Lee Tanner, a jazz photographer whose evocative and sometimes ethereal images of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and others helped define the genre visually on scores of album covers and in magazines, exhibitions and books, died on Sept. 7 in San Andreas, Calif. He was 82.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Lisa Tanner, who is also a professional photographer.

Lee Tanner fell in love with jazz and then with photography. By the early 1950s, he had begun combining his passions. He first published his images in a major jazz magazine, Down Beat, in 1958.

Unlike some other jazz photographers, Tanner focused almost exclusively on capturing candid moments. Using newer technology that allowed him to pursue “available light” photography, free of flashbulbs, he photographed musicians in their often dimly lighted natural environment: live performance. “I think the important thing is to be able to be present when the music is being played, because there is a very, very intimate relationship between the musicians, their music and their instruments,” he told CNN in 1997. “And it’s very, very special in person as opposed to hearing it on record.”

Lee Elliot Tanner was born on May 28, 1931, in New York. His father, Vladimir, was an artist who designed movie posters. His mother, Enid, was a hat buyer for Lord & Taylor. His parents enjoyed classical music, but Tanner was drawn to jazz.

He owned his first camera by the time he was 14. But even as he began pursuing photography seriously in his 20s, Tanner was also preparing for a different kind of career. In 1953 he graduated with an engineering degree from New York University, specializing in metallurgy. Five years later, after serving as an engineer in the Army, he received a master’s degree in metallurgy and materials science from the University of Pennsylvania.

His work as a scientist included finding ways to heat metals like titanium to make them more pliable.